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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26084074">From Dusk 'Til Dawn</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualMango/pseuds/ActualMango'>ActualMango</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Geldis needs to get a fucking sleep schedule, Grumpy old elves in love, Light Angst, M/M, Nerevarine!Teldryn, Nightmares, Short One Shot, Sleeptalking, Slice of Life, Wingman Glover strikes again, alcohol mention, past trauma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:13:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,471</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26084074</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualMango/pseuds/ActualMango</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A few moments, some short, some long, between dusk and dawn.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Geldis Sadri/Teldryn Sero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>From Dusk 'Til Dawn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Because I will give this ship as many tropes as I can and you can't stop me.</p><p>Also - some stuff in this will reference Business Is Dry (my other Geldryn fic), so not to pimp myself out, but I <i>would</i> recommend reading that first.</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The red, paper-gentled light seeped in from under the door to their room, cutting through the underground dim. Rough flagstones, years of red ash trodden into their grooves. Twin cups of water on the table. The inhabited bed’s rough-spliced frame. A grey hand, dappled in the light, thrown over the covers. Hair fanned out like a second pillow. The soft rise and fall of tangled, breathing bodies. A shift, a murmur, a sigh of falling back into sleep.</p><p>Teldryn woke up first, roused by a slammed door - an inconsiderate customer, no doubt, but he was too peaceful to be annoyed. Instead he yawned and rubbed his eyes, careful not to disturb the man stretched against his side. Turned his head to look at the clock - late in the morning. The cornerclub opened at midday.</p><p>Geldis looked content as a well-fed cat, however, and Teldryn was loath to wake him. He gave him some time to bask in the ashy light before speaking. “We should get up.”</p><p>Teldryn had barely spoken above a murmur. Geldis’ reply, however, was loud enough to be heard from outside the room (even louder than his snores, which was impressive). “I need to lean again," he declared, with the confidence of a young child announcing their plans to rule the world. "Too much sujamma.”</p><p>Teldryn chuckled quietly to himself. This wasn’t the first time Geldis had spouted nonsense in his sleep. The first time, they’d been dozing, sated, and Teldryn had almost jumped out of his skin when Geldis said something along the lines of <em> shove off, you fucking muthsera </em> (which Teldryn suspected had something to do with a particularly venomous Indoril who’d been sneering at Geldis and his apparently substandard drinks all evening). Now, however, he was accustomed enough to humour him. “Why is there too much sujamma?”</p><p>“Bastards. And dragons,” Geldis said, voice bleary, before promptly huffing and turning over.</p><p>“Whatever you say, dearest.” Teldryn rolled onto his back, idling away the time tracing the map of cracks in the ceiling with his gaze. They were familiar territory.</p><p>After a few minutes, Geldis shifted beside him.Teldryn tried again. “We should get up.”</p><p>“Mm,” Geldis said, more lucid this time. “We should.”</p><p>“Let’s do that, then.”</p><p>Neither of them moved.</p><p>As much as he knew they had to seize the day, and what have you, Teldryn didn’t particularly <em> want </em> to. He was in a comfortable bed, he had nothing else to be getting on with, and Geldis lay next to him, warm and familiar. Still, the more restless part of him (which was most of him) wouldn’t let him loaf around like some fatcat noble, appealing as the idea was.</p><p>“Really,” Teldryn said, even as he ran a gentle hand through Geldis’ messy morning hair. “We should-”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, kick me out of bed, why don’t you.” Well, Geldis was firmly awake <em> now</em>. He stretched his arms above his head, groaning. “Glover’ll want food, for starters.” Teldryn caught his mutter about the aforementioned being a <em> damn child</em>, although he sounded more like an exasperated friend than a stern parent.</p><p>A muffled voice came from the other side of the wall - gruff and Skyrim-born. “Don’t mind me, lovebirds, I got my own,” Glover Mallory said, sounding far too pleased with himself. “Left coin behind the bar, Geldis, before you go worrying your little head. Good stew, by the way”</p><p>“You-” Geldis cursed in Dunmeris with a filthy enough mouth to make a sailor blush, sitting up to haul his bad leg out of bed. Teldryn just lay there while Geldis readied his prosthetic and dressed, savouring the warmth pooling in his chest like honey. It’d been months since it had occurred to him and Geldis that they were perhaps a <em> little </em> more than good friends, but he relished every morning they woke up side by side. Even if Glover took it upon himself to interrupt.</p><p>--</p><p>
  <em> Tangled colours, wound like a web - glowing red, gilded gold, ashen grey, Dwemer bronze. Dull, eldritch light. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> His laugh is as deep, as powerful as the bones of the earth themselves. His talons flash like cruel daggers. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> He was never dead. The sleepers awake. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Can’t run. Can only watch. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Soon, he rises, rises into the red light of a new, terrible dawn. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Red, red, pulsing red. He is coming closer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> His hand on your face, pulling you open, can’t is closer red wake, coming, can’t run (run!), run, red, he is coming closer- </em>
</p><p>“Teldryn?”</p><p>He gasped awake, hands clenched in the sheets, eyes wide and sweeping his surroundings like prey being stalked. It was dark. Distantly, like from far underground, or over the roar of a storm, he heard Geldis say something.</p><p>“You ‘right?” Geldis' voice was heavy and tired, but not annoyed. Concerned, more like.</p><p>Teldryn didn’t even have the energy to reply. He was rubbing at his face, unable to scratch away the phantom claws caressing his cheeks (<em> like a cat with a mouse </em>, came the thought, unbidden, but he pushed it away).</p><p>He couldn’t help but jump at Geldis’ touch on his forearm, before willing himself to relax. But it was dark enough that he could see the red light from the lanterns in the corridor creeping under the door, and that sent him back, back to where the sun couldn't burn even <em> him </em> away, where-</p><p>“N’chow- <em> Teldryn </em>.”</p><p>He forced himself to breathe - deep, long breaths, air in, air out. <em> He’s not here </em> , he thought desperately. <em> He’s not coming back. He’s dead. For good </em>.</p><p>(He barely believed himself, of course - he was still waiting, wasn’t he? - but it was a nice thought.)</p><p>But he wasn’t going to lay his ghosts on Geldis. “Sorry,” he said instead.</p><p>“S’alright,” Geldis replied. “Nightmares? Anything I can do?”</p><p>“Turn off the lights outside.”</p><p>It only occurred to him when Geldis had already sat up that that wouldn’t be a simple task, what with his prosthetic, but he apparently forwent it, as a few moments later he heard Geldis shuffling along, and saw him dimly in the red (<em>r</em><em>ed</em>) light, leaning on his backup walking stick like an old man. Teldryn forced himself to ignore his guilt.</p><p>Door opening, left to swing on its hinges. Geldis’ shadow, warped and twisted, creeping along the wall (he tried not to look, to remember another twisted shadow). Then blissful darkness. Teldryn let himself relax.</p><p>When Geldis climbed back into bed, Teldryn was already calmer, now that the red lights weren’t pricking at the edges of his vision like needles. “Thank you.”</p><p>"No problem,” Geldis said, settling down with a sigh.</p><p>They were silent, an awkward inch between their shoulders - there was barely enough room on the bed. Teldryn couldn’t see him, only hear his ash-roughened breaths and breathe in his sweet, dusty scent. Indisputable proof that someone was there and next to him. Someone safe.</p><p>Tentatively, Geldis wrapped their hands together, with the same air as someone leaning over a fragile relative’s sickbed - like they might break at even the slightest of touches. Frankly, Teldryn <em>felt</em> like he might break at even the slightest of touches. “Alright?”</p><p>Teldryn only leaned into him, wrapping one arm around his shoulders. He felt Geldis’ hand run up his back in long, soothing strokes. “Yes. Thank you.” He couldn’t find it in himself to explain, or say more, but he didn’t need to.</p><p>“This happened before, it did,” Geldis murmured, voice rusty. “I remember. I was renting a room at the New Gnisis. Ambarys had to wake you up, you were thrashing so much.”</p><p>“Mm. He probably did.” He couldn’t have spoken loudly even if he wanted to - not right now, in the early morning. A time for confessions, not for bold declarations. “Not the only time. I’ve had them-” he took a sharp breath, steering his tongue from the truth it ached to tell- “most of my life.” It wasn't exactly a lie, but even if he’d been able to tell Geldis the truth, doing it now would only bring his thoughts back to that place (<em> under the earth, red </em>), and there would go his chances of getting any more rest tonight.</p><p>“It’s fine,” Geldis said. From his grogginess, he was already drifting off (oh, how Teldryn envied him). “If anything tries to give you more, I’ll beat them off myself.”</p><p>Teldryn grinned. “I’ll be right there with you.” (He already had beaten them up, of course, but it would stand up well to repetition.)</p><p>A couple of times that night, he had to steer himself away from that place, deep underground. But with a warm presence by his side, it was easy.</p><p>--</p><p>Rubbing his eyes, Teldryn peered around the corner and into the main room. Geldis was still at the bar, despite it being what, four in the morning? - after even the hardiest of drinkers had stumbled back to bed.</p><p>“Why’re you still up?” he asked, shuffling over. Geldis spared him only a cursory glance before returning to his work. Scribbled on a piece of paper. Frowned. Amended something. Wrote again. Tapped his pen thoughtfully against his bottom lip. Ignored Teldryn leaning over the bar in front of him, as casually as he could be arsed to be at such an early hour. “You’ll work yourself to death.”</p><p>“I told you,” Geldis grumbled, still fixated on the damn piece of paper, “they need me to get this done. He thinks there might be a new threat to his life.” ‘They’ being the Redorans’ self-important security team, of which Geldis was an unofficial (and uncompensated, to Teldryn’s chagrin) part, ‘he’ being Adril Arano, self-important loyal dog and second-in-command, and ‘his life’ being that of one self-important Lleril Morvayn - a good man, and not incorrect in considering himself important, but a nuisance for Veleth and Arano to keep alive. Teldryn was still vague on the exact nature of Geldis’ involvement in the protective padding around the Councilor, or how that involvement had begun in the first place, but he did know that it kept Geldis up very late, and that Geldis was not superhuman.</p><p>“Come to bed, you fetcher.” Even in the dim light, it was impossible not to notice the droop of Geldis’ eyelids, the weariness as he shifted his gaze from piece of paper to bureaucratic piece of paper. Even his Dwemer prosthetic sounded exhausted, sputtering with every whir. It would need another soul gem soon.</p><p>“I can’t.”</p><p>“Who says? The people that want a <em> well-rested, </em><em>alert </em> group of people keeping Morvayn safe?”</p><p>Finally, Geldis looked up, just in time to look at Teldryn as he reached out and ran a hand over one stubbly cheek, thumbing over the corner of his lips. His eyes fluttered for a moment - tired, considering - before he pushed Teldryn's hand away, although he apparently couldn't resist squeezing it for the briefest of moments. "I'll come once I get this done, but I dunno when. You’ll have to live without me.”</p><p>Teldryn let him be then, temporarily. Geldis must’ve been so absorbed in his <em> very important work </em> that he didn’t hear Teldryn come around the bar and behind him. He tensed up when Teldryn slid his arms around his waist, and for a moment guilt rang through him - <em> how would you like being snuck up on like that, hmm, Teldryn? </em> - but then Geldis relaxed, leaning into him for one weak moment before returning to his reports.</p><p>“Please,” Teldryn said - he wasn’t too proud to plead, not this early in the morning - mumbling into the crook of Geldis’ shoulder, the hollow behind his ear, the very base of his neck. Pressed up against Geldis’ back as he was, he felt every inch of the shiver that ran through him. “Come to <em> bed </em>.”</p><p>“What’re you doing, seducing me?” Geldis drummed his fingers against the bartop, then scribbled again, pointedly ignoring Teldryn’s affections. “You did that a long time ago, or is your memory really that bad?”</p><p>“Yes, Geldis, I’m seducing you, like the wicked harlot I am.” He ran one hand through the very ends of Geldis’ ponytail, teasing it out where it was tangled after a long day. “Seducing you into healthy sleep patterns. They’re very helpful, you know.”</p><p>“Is sleeping really all you want to do?” Geldis turned, giving in and twisting around in Teldryn’s arms to look down at him with his most skeptical expression. The Hope-Dasher, as Teldryn privately called it, brought out when a desperate customer tried to tell him they had the money, really, just not right now, they’d pay him in the morning, honest, Geldis, and could they please just have one more drink-</p><p>(Geldis had never had an issue with Teldryn doing that, funnily enough. At the time, he’d thought it was just because he was a reliable patron. He <em> really </em> should have seen the signs earlier.)</p><p>“I’m not saying I’d ever be opposed to activities other than sleeping.” He nuzzled into Geldis’ neck, more to emphasise his own weariness than anything else. “But not tonight, because, in case you somehow didn’t hear me before, you need to <em> sleep."</em> Pulled back to look Geldis in the eyes, as if he were about to say something of great import. “And you wouldn’t want to deprive Glover of breakfast, would you?”</p><p>“He won’t be getting breakfast here tomorrow, actually.” Geldis smirked.</p><p>“Good. You’ll be able to lie in later and catch all the sleep you’re missing even as you argue about this.”</p><p>Teldryn pressed a kiss to Geldis’ cheek before he sighed and turned away, looking down at his notes once more. “Stubborn fetcher. Fine. In five minutes. I’ll see you there.” He saw what Teldryn was doing and frowned. “Weren’t you just ragging at me to get some sleep? And that’s my chair, you s’wit.”</p><p>Teldryn grinned at him from his slumped position in Geldis’s favourite chair, very obviously not going back to bed (<em>t</em><em>heir </em> bed, now, as he loved to remind himself). “Can’t a mer spend time with his beloved partner anymore?”</p><p>“Beloved, my arse,” Geldis said. “You want to make sure I keep my word.”</p><p>“Ok, ok” Teldryn said, throwing his hands up, “you caught me. But <em> also</em>,” he leaned forwards, looking up at Geldis as earnestly as he could manage, “I like spending time with you, even if you’re ignoring me. And I love you, you know that. Which is <em> why-"</em></p><p>“Oh, by Azura - fine. I’ll come to bed.”</p><p>“<em> Bloody finally</em>,” Teldryn tried to mutter. From Geldis' raised eyebrows, he wasn't as surreptitious as he'd hoped, but Teldryn didn’t care. The only things that mattered were that Geldis was coming to bed, and that, as they stumbled back to bed, he said, low enough that Teldryn could barely hear, “ <em> Love you too, fetcher.</em>”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you enjoyed it, don't forget to kudos! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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